1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the fabrication of photovoltaic cells and particularly to the formation of layers on a substrate by use of an electrophoretic metallization process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solar cells are photovoltaic devices that convert sunlight directly into electrical power. The most common solar cell material is silicon, which is in the form of single or polycrystalline substrates. Because the amortized cost of forming silicon-based solar cells to generate electricity is higher than the cost of generating electricity using traditional methods, there has been an effort to reduce the cost to form solar cells.
FIGS. 1A and 1B schematically depict a standard silicon solar cell 100 fabricated on a substrate 110. The substrate 110 includes a p-type base region 101, an n-type emitter region 102, and a p-n junction region 103 disposed therebetween. An n-type region, or n-type semiconductor, is formed by doping the semiconductor with certain types of elements (e.g., phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), or antimony (Sb)) in order to increase the number of negative charge carriers, i.e., electrons. Similarly, a p-type region, or p-type semiconductor, is formed by the addition of trivalent atoms to the crystal lattice, resulting in a missing electron from one of the four covalent bonds normal for the silicon lattice. Thus the dopant atom can accept an electron from a neighboring atom's covalent bond to complete the fourth bond. The dopant atom accepts an electron, causing the loss of half of one bond from the neighboring atom and resulting in the formation of a “hole”.
When light falls on the solar cell, energy from the incident photons generates electron-hole pairs on both sides of the p-n junction region 103. Electrons diffuse across the p-n junction to a lower energy level and holes diffuse in the opposite direction, creating a negative charge on the emitter and a corresponding positive charge builds up in the base. When an electrical circuit is made between the emitter and the base and the p-n junction is exposed to certain wavelengths of light, a current will flow. The electrical current generated by the semiconductor when illuminated flows through contacts disposed on the frontside 120, i.e. the light-receiving side, and the backside 121 of the substrate 110. The top contact structure, as shown in FIG. 1A, is generally configured as widely-spaced thin metal lines, or fingers 104, that supply current to a larger bus bar 105. The back contact 106 is generally not constrained to be formed in multiple thin metal lines, since it does not prevent incident light from striking solar cell 100. Solar cell 100 is generally covered with a thin layer of dielectric material, such as Si2N4, to act as an anti-reflection coating 111, or ARC, to minimize light reflection from the top surface of solar cell 100.
In the interest of simplified assembly and higher efficiency of solar cells, a solar cell has been developed, wherein a plurality of holes is formed through the solar cell substrate and serves as vias for interconnection of the top contact structure to a backside conductor by using pins. This solar cell design is referred to as a pin-up module, or PUM. One advantage of the PUM concept is the elimination of the busbars, such as bus bar 105 illustrated in FIG. 1A, from covering the light-receiving side of the substrate, thereby increasing efficiency of the cell. Another is that resistive losses are reduced because current produced by the solar cell is collected at holes equally spaced over the substrate rather than requiring some of the connections to extend across the surface of the solar cell. Further, resistive losses experienced by a PUM connected device will not increase as the solar cell surface area increases and, hence, larger solar cells may be manufactured without a loss in efficiency.
FIG. 1C is a partial schematic cross section of one example of a PUM cell 130 showing a contact 134. Similar to a standard solar cell, such as solar cell 100, PUM cell 130 includes a single crystal silicon substrate 110 with a p-type base region 101, an n-type emitter region 102, and a p-n junction region 103 disposed therebetween. PUM cell 130 also includes a plurality of through-holes 131, which are formed between the light-receiving surface 132 and the backside 133 of PUM cell 130. The through-holes 131 allow the formation of contacts 134 between the light-receiving surface 132 and the backside 133. Disposed in each through-hole 131 is a contact 134, which includes a top contact structure 135 disposed on light-receiving surface 132, a backside contact 136 disposed on backside 133, and an interconnect 137, which fills through-hole 131 and electrically couples top contact structure 135 and backside contact 136. An anti-reflective coating 107 may also be formed on light-receiving surface 132 to minimize reflection of light energy therefrom. A backside contact 139 completes the electrical circuit required for PUM cell 130 to produce a current by forming an ohmic contact with p-type base region 101 of substrate 110.
The fingers 104 (FIG. 1B) or contacts 134 (FIG. 1C) are in contact with the substrate and are adapted to form an ohmic connection with doped region (e.g., n-type emitter region) 102. An ohmic contact is a region on a semiconductor device that has been prepared so that the current-voltage (I-V) curve of the device is linear and symmetric, i.e., there is no high resistance interface between the doped silicon region of the semiconductor device and the metal contact. Low-resistance, stable contacts are critical for the performance of the solar cell and reliability of the circuits formed in the solar cell fabrication process. Hence, after the fingers 104, or contacts 134, have been formed on the light-receiving surface and on the backside, an annealing process of suitable temperature and duration is typically performed in order to produce the necessary low resistance metal silicide at the contact/semiconductor interface.
Wider current-carrying metal lines (e.g., fingers 104, contacts 134) on the light-receiving surface of the solar cell yield lower resistance losses, but shadowing losses are higher due to the reduced effective surface area of the light-receiving surface. Therefore, maximizing solar cell efficiency requires balancing these opposing design constraints. FIG. 1D illustrates a plan view of one example of a top contact structure 135 for a PUM cell, wherein the finger width and geometry provide high cell efficiency. In this configuration, a top contact structure 135 for a PUM cell is configured as an electrode 138, which consists of a plurality of various width finger segments 135A. The width of a particular finger segment 135A is selected as a function of the current to be carried by that finger segment 135A. In addition, finger segments 135A are configured to branch as necessary to maintain finger spacing as a function of finger width. This minimizes resistance losses as well as shadowing by finger segments 135A.
Traditionally, the current carrying metal lines, or conductors, are fabricated using a screen printing process in which a metal-containing paste is deposited in a desired pattern on a substrate surface and then annealed to fuse the metal. Frequently, the metal used is silver. In most processes, the metal paste is mechanically applied to the substrate to fill in features formed on the substrate. The substrate is then thermally treated, or annealed, to fuse the metal into conductors. Silver is widely used for current products due to its low resistivity, but it is expensive. Further, as devices shrink, substrate thicknesses decline as well to meet design and cost constraints. Currently, substrates of thickness less than 200 micrometers (μm) are common. Use of the screen print process generates physical forces on substrates. These forces can be tolerated by thicker substrates, but substrates of thickness less than 200 μm fracture or break during the screen print process.
Therefore, there is a need for a low cost method of forming a contact structure for solar cells that has low resistivity, clearly defined features, and a strong bond and good electrical contact with the surface of the substrate.